Jeesh Kris, it sounds like you were about ready to "Ramette" up someone's------opps I don't want to get thrown off the forum!

O'Wrongley's---LOL! Glad you got it back together. Did you have to drop the oil pan? I assume so but know nothing about those engines. My wife had an '86 Plymouth Colt that was actually a Mitsubishi and that little car was a pain. I managed to keep it going for her for 8 or 9 years but never enjoyed it much.

Didn't have to drop the pan - although I kinda needed to. My drainplug is stripped and seeps all the time. I have a good pan on my parts truck but its sunk in the ground out back. Didn't have time to pull it - plus my jackstands were already being used. I'll probably just weld a nut on the outside of the pan and as long as I'm a good boiler-maker welder it should work fine.

New guy at O'Wrongleys wanted to "help" me when I went in for the seal. I was hiding in the back waiting on one of 3 guys that work there that know me and can use the book if the durn 'putor screen refuses to show what I need.

SO, I reluctantly walk up to the counter......

"I need a rear main seal for a 1984 Dodge pickup with a 2.2 liter."

He punches it in..................................... and stares at the screen..................................

..................................................... its like that Joe Diffy song. "Prop me up, beside the jukebox when I die"

I was about ready to start CPR when he asks.......

"1500, 2500, or 3500?"

I say "Rampage"

he says HUH?

Repeat, "Rampage".

About that time one of my guys walks up, hands the new guy a box and says deliver this to such and such's shop. He glanced at the screen WITHOUT typing in anything and says "I have that in stock".

I have to put hay bales around my foundation every winter because the older half of the house is so old the foundation is losely stacked rock [sandstone] gathered from this farm. My furnace just sucks "return" air from under the house and there is no return ducting of any kind. There is a grate in the floor for return air but look through it and you'll just see the ground. In other words I'm heating outside air each time it goes through the furnace if I don't seal off the perimeter somehow. Thats one of the reasons the rent is so cheap here. Been here 25+ years and LOVE it. When people give me grief about paying rent all those years and not building equity in a house I can call mine, I tell them what the rent is and they always say... "never mind, I'd rent there too". Plus I have a heated/air-co'd shop and several storage buildings for tractors. All of which are full.

ANYHOW...

Today I removed the bales and put them back in the barn so i can use them next winter if I'm still here. In the pic there are 15 bales on the Ramette. Thats all I use because 1/2 of the house has cement block foundation and is sealed good. If I could find more wire tied bales I would go all the way around but small square bales are kind of hard to find these days.

When I was growing up dad had a '72 Dodge 1/2 ton, 4 wheeler and we'd [me!] get 72 bales on a load. Any higher and it wouldn't be legal to go down the road. If we turned the top 'tie-in" row on edge we'd get 75 bales per load. We sold a lot of hay every winter at the local sale barn. Dad had Diamond Reo leaf springs under the back of his '72 and no matter what you put on that pickup, it NEVER squatted.

Once again I rambled into another direction.

On this side you can see the fender and quarter panel has been repainted - and it needs redone badly.

Tonight the plan is to go visit friends for dinner about 45 miles away and I plan on taking the Ramette.